Buffalo Half Marathon Training Week 8 Recap

The Buffalo Half Marathon is less than a week away. The big race is SO close!

How have your workouts been going? I worked really hard in my latest week of training, but unfortunately, the knee pain was much more of a challenge and my calves aren’t too happy with me either.

I’m joining Courtney of Eat Pray Run DC for her Weekly Training Recap linkup and HoHo and Tricia for the Weekly Wrap! These are great ways to keep accountable and share your workouts with fellow runners!

Weekly Wrap: Busy Life and Ragnar Relay Preparations

These past few weeks have been incredibly busy for me. Between work, race training, blogging, and getting things done at home, I’ve felt like I’ve been burning the candle at both ends. While I have finally started using my Passion Planner again, I still find myself missing appointments, forgetting things, and just feeling out of control and buried in tasks. Work was particularly tough as some changes have occurred with my project that I’m learning to adapt. I feel much better about things now, but I was so glad to have Friday off so that I could have time to do absolutely nothing (after my run, of course)! It’s so important to have “me time”. I watched hours of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air DVD’s and I gotta tell you, it really helped!

On Saturday I had a meeting with the City Fit Girls team for Ragnar Relay Pennsylvania. It’s hard to believe, but the event is now less than 2 weeks away! We went over some logistics – making sure we have the supplies we need, how to pack our gear, how we will meet up for the 2-hour drive (I’m in Van 1 so we have to get up BRIGHT and early!). These ladies are amazing and I’m so honored to be able to be on their team – I know we’ll have a really fun time! I know I haven’t talked about Ragnar much since I’ve been SO busy, but I’m really excited for this new challenge – our entire team is full of first-timers so it’s going to be quite the experience! If you have any tips for Ragnar or helpful posts, please let me know!

Workouts for the Week

Monday 5/15: Lunchtime yoga. The first half of the class we worked on mobility in our hips and did a lot of stretches that my body really craved after that 12-mile run on Sunday! The second half of class was a very fast-paced vinyasa flow, almost to the point that I couldn’t keep up!

Tuesday 5/16: Softball Tuesday! As usual, I was nervous because I’m not a good hitter, but I had a pretty good game with some decent hits! Hopefully this week I can continue to improve my game! I wanted to go for a run after work, but I ran out of time because I had to vote in the PA primary, meaning I had to drive all the way home, and then come back out to the softball field. Totally worth it, but I didn’t get to run as much as I would have liked.

Wednesday 5/17: The beginning of the heat wave! Bret and I went for 4 miles in the evening, and it was still ridiculously hot! We went to Forbidden Drive then made our way on a trail that I haven’t been to in a really long time. It was quite a slog, but I’m glad I got it done. I HATE summer running, but I guess it’s a good thing to start adapting now!

Thursday 5/18: I planned to do my speed work in the temperature-controlled gym after work, but I forgot my running shoes! That meant that I was going straight to happy hour instead…

Friday 5/19: I finally got to do my speed work, but it was on Friday morning and it was already pushing 80 degrees. The plan was 45 minutes of running: 10-minute warmup, 25 minutes at 9:20-9:30, 10-minute cooldown. The warmup went okay but the calf and shin tightness was still a nuisance. Once I started to speed up, the heat really drained me and it was tough to keep pace. I had to stop several times and catch my breath. Somehow I did have one mile with a 9:20ish pace, though I did have to take advantage of some downhills, lol. I really thought of giving up on this run, but I did get it done!

Saturday 5/20: My last long run – 8 miles. Thankfully the heat wave was over, so I had perfect running weather despite a few sprinkles. Unfortunately, my calves were still really tight and it took over 3 miles for them to feel okay. For electrolytes, I used the Salt Stick that was provided in the latest Stridebox. Good thing I used them in training because I’m definitely not a fan – I’d rather deal with a powder. My knee pain did come back during the run, but I pushed through it. I did my exercises and iced my knees post-run. Not fun!

Sunday 5/21: With the knee pain I had on Saturday, I was definitely not going to go for another run, but I did go to barre class I’m glad that I did! We did a lot of the moves that I need to do to strengthen my hips and glutes, and while it was REALLY tough, my body needed it! We use the resistance band in class on the floor and at the barre, and one move where we wrapped it around our calves and stretched our inner thighs was really hard! I took a long nap when I got back from class!

A post shared by Janelle (@runwithnoregrets) on May 20, 2017 at 10:31am PDT

Week 8 Report Card

Obviously, the calf tightness, random shin pain, and knee pain is NOT a good thing, especially on the heels of my big race. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried. I wore my Adidas Supernova 8’s all week to test them and see if they were race-worthy, but I’ll definitely be wearing Mizuno Wave Riders instead. I’m sort of “preserving” my older pair until the race because they have over 200 miles on them. While I had some painful runs this week, I did do some decent cross-training and I did the best that I could considering the circumstances. Now that I’m in the taper, I’m going to take advantage of the low milage and go into overdrive recovery – foam rolling, stretching, icing, and a little bit of praying! Any good vibes you can send my way would be appreciated! I’m going to give Week 8 a B-.

Do you have any races coming up? Have you ever had a potential injury pop up before a race?